Process of and composition for bleaching



Patented 16, 1928.

WILLIAM B. STODDARD,

OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

OF. STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNORS T PILOT LABORATORY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

INO., OF ARLINGTON,

I'ROOESS OF AND COMPOSITION FOR IBIIEAFHING.

No Drawing. Application filed March a,

This invention relates to a process of and composition for bleaching animal and vegetable matter such as food stuffs, soaps, waxes and the like and in its preferred embodiment and most advantageous use is concerned particulagly with a process of and agent for bleaching chromophoric oil-bearing materials, e. g., flour, cottonseed and other seed meals, egg

yolk, oils, fats and the like.

Organic peroxids heretofore have been used in the bleaching of food studs and particularly milling products and vegetable OllS, benzoyl peroxid having been the only one extensively employed in such bleaching processes. Benzoyl peroxid. while regarded as being less harmful in bleaching food stuffs than most other peroxids. and materially less harmful than the cheap inorganic bleaching agents such as chlorine, nitrogen peroxid and the like, is expensive and belongs to a class of bodies whose use has beeen more or less restricted by the Federal food and'drug act.

There has-long been a demand for a bleaching process for food stuffs notably flour. seed meals and edible oils, which would be efiicient, cheap, and not only entirely harmless but adapted to exert a beneficial action upon food materials bleached thereby, and we have long sought to provide a food bleaching process wherein the bleaching agent employed after finally completing its bleaching function, would leave a residue which is itself a recognized wholesome-food material known to be incapable of deleteriously affecting the material treated by such process.

We have now discovered that many animal 40 and vegetable materials, and particularly food stuffs. such as flour, cottonseed and other seed meals, egg yolk. oils and fats can be readily, satisfactorily and very cheaply bleached by the action of a fatty acid peroxid, or a mixture of such peroxids. and

' that the bleached product after the final action of such peroxid or peroxids'thereon, will contain as a residue from such fatty acid peroxids a food material (fatty acid or 59. acids) which is, and is well known to be, a

wholesome and beneficial addition to foodstuifs. In accordance with our invention broadly considered, a suitable material, itself food stuffs normally containing 1:

1927, Serial No. 173,784. Renewed December 29, 1927.

a food, is peroxidized. In the subsequent process. of bleaching,

idized, whereby bleached matemal except a wholesome food product whi h"s a beneficial addition there- We also have discovered-that fatty acid peroxids, and to some extent the fatty acids produced therefrom in the bleaching operation, act as activators for peroxids, thereby increasing their ness as bleaching agents. Thus we have found that fatty acid peroxids will improve the bleaching action of other organic peroxids, and that the fatty acids which are produced in bleaching with fatty acid peroxids, or a mixture of, such peroxids and other organic peroxids, act as activating catalysts not only for the unchanged fatty acid peroxids but for any may be. employed therewith, whereby the rapidity and effectiveness of the bleachingis increased.

We may employ effectivein our process any fatty acid peroxid, or mixture of suchperoxids,-

however produced. We prefer, however, employ mixed fatty acid peroxids: produced from the fatty acid content of oils or fats, preferably produced from the fatty acidcontent of oils such, for example, as cocoanut or other inexpensive suitable oils. I

Mixed fatty acid peroxids produced from AND VAMAIN' n. xoxa'rmm,

itbreaks up into oxygen and the food material originally perox nothing remains in the 7 other organic other organic peroxid whichthefatty acid content of anaturally occurring fat or oil, as for example, cocoanut oil, are not only less expensive than peroxids made from the individual fatty acids that are commercially available, e. g., oleic or stearic v acid, but it is preferable to use mixed fat acids from a source, such as cocoanut oi, which have. a lower average molecular weight than that of the individual fatty acids commercially obtainable, and this we regard as an-advantage in the'production of peroxids from such fatty acids,

because the lower the average molecular weight of the fatty acids peroxidized, the higher will be the percentage of, active oxygen in the peroxids therefrom. We have found that peroxids of the higher fatty acids, commonly known as the soap forming fatty acids, are the most satisfactory for use. in our process.

I The following example illustrates the pre- .a thermometer and a delivery tube for gas.

For example, if a mixture of two fatty acids a and b is to be used in which the molecular I weight of. acid a is 160 and the molecular wei ht of acid b is 180, then 170 kilo ams of tie mixture of acids at and b is use To this is added slightly more than one mole kilo, i. e., 197 kilograms of benzo-trichlorid together with about .5 kilo of ferric chlorid. The mixture is heated on a water bath with or without agitation until the evolution of hydrochloric acid practically ceases. From the resulting. mixture of benzoyl chlorid and fatty acid chlorids, compounds containing iron and a small amount of tar-like products, the mixture of fatty acid chlorids is separated by fractional distillation.

The mixture of fatty acid chlorids is further purified if desired and used for peroxidation.

Thus 760 litres of a 5 per cent solution of hydrogen-peroxid by weight or its equivalent 1n other strengths, are placed in a suitable vessel and 565 kilograms of sal soda or the uivalent amount of other alkali, are disso ved or suspended in the solution. To this solutionare gradually added within 15 or 2( minutes, with vigorous agitation, 187 kilograms of a mixture of pure fatty acid chlorids of an average acid molecular weight of 170. The reaction is continued until the odor of acid chlorid vanishes. The resultmg product is quickly separated, washed with water and dried either with or without the addition of a filler or diluent. The dried material is suitable for bleaching purposes.

In the process of peroxidation, particularly in the case of water resistant acld chlorids, we have found that the addition of mutual solvents, both for the hydrogen peroxid and acid chlorids, or of emulsifying agents such as soap, for the fatty acid chlorids, hel materially in hastening the reaction, an causing it to take place at a lower temperature.

The fatty acid peroxid or peroxids, either with or wlthout a diluent or filler of the kind commonly employed with organic per-' oxid bleaching. agents, is' intimately mixed with the material to be bleached in the manner and in equivalent proportions commonly employed in the case of bleaching by the use of or anic peroxids, such as benzoyl peroxid, and the leaching action takes place by simply allowing the mlxture to stand at ordinary temperatures.

These fatty acid peroxids are relatlvely easy and safe to make and to handle. They are more readily soluble in 0115 than other organic peroxids, and hence are particularly well adapted not only for the bleaching of oils but for the bleaching of other materials whose coloring matter is contained in the oil constituent of such materials, e. g, flour, seed meals, egg yolk and the like. urthermore, the fatty acid peroxids after they begin their bleaching action are self-activating since the fatty acids produced in such bleaching action act as activating catalysts for the remainin undecomposed peroxids.

As in lcated earlier, the fatty acid peroxids when mixed with other organic peroxids, such as benzoyl peroxid, act as activators for the other organic peroxids. Such mixtures of peroxids are however, advanta 'eously used in the bleaching of materials other than food stuffs, since the advantage of using a peroxidized food material WhlClIl will leave in the food stuffs treated only the food material from which the peroxid was made, outweighs any advantage resulting from the use of a mixture of the peroxldized food material with other organic peroxids.

The proportion in which the fatty acid peroxids may most economically be added to the milling products, or other material to be bleached, in order to effect thorough bleaching, can readily be determined by test, but this matter of the proportion of the bleaching agent to be used is far less important in the case of fatty acid peroxids 105 than in the case of other bleachin a'gents,

articularly in treating food stu s, since atty acid peroxids are very inexpensive to pro uce, and any excess of such peroxids over that required for thorough bleaching 110 is graduall wholly decomposed leaving no resldue or eposit other than the fatty acids.

While we have described in detail the preferred practice of our invention it is to be understood that the procedure set forth may 115 be varied and that our invention is not limited thereto except as set forth in the subjoined claims.

We claim:

1. The process of bleaching com subjectin the food material to be h to the action of a eroxidized acid occurring in natural fats and oils.

2. A process of bleaching comprising subrisino' cached jecting the material to be bleached to the action of a soap-forming fatty acid peroxid.

3. A process of bleaching comprising subjecting the material to be bleached to the action of an oil soluble fatty acid peroxid.

4. A process of bleachingcomprising subjecting the material to be bleached to the action of mixed-fatty acid peroxids.

5. The herein described process of bleaching which consists in intimately mixing with a food material to be bleached a peroxidized food material which material comprises a fatty acid adapted upon decomposition in the bleaching process to revert to the original food material whose peroxid was employed as the bleaching agent.

6. The herein described process of bleach ing which consists in intimately mixing with a food material to be bleached a peroxidized fatty acid adapted upon being decomposed in the bleaching process to revert to the fatty acid whose peroxid was employed as the bleaching agent.

7. A process of bleaching comprising subjecting the material to be bleached to the action of a peroxidized organic food material, which material comprises a fatty acid and decomposing said peroxidized organic food material into oxygen and the organic material from which said peroxid was pro duced.

8. A bleaching agent comprising a soap forming fatty acid peroxid.

9. A bleaching agent comprising an oil soluble fatty acid peroxid'.

10. A bleaching agent comprising a peroxid of an organic compound which organic compound comprises a fatty acid and is an activating catalyst for its own peroxid.

11. A bleaching agent particularly adapted for bleaching food stuffs by being intimately mixed therewith comprising a peroxidized food material which material comprises a fatty acid and which is adapted to be decomposed material during the bleaching operation.

12. A bleaching agent particularly adapted for bleaching food stuffs by being intimately mixed therewith comprising a peroxidized fatty acid adapted to be decomposed into oxygen and fatty acid during vthe bleaching operation.

into oxygen and such food In testimony whereof we afiix our signatures.

WILLIAM B. STODDARD. VAMAN R. KOKATNUR. 

